With less than a month until the 2012 presidential election, Americans will go to the polls to determine who will occupy the Oval Office for the next four years. Take everything out of the mix except what matters. Disregard race, religion, wealth, and how many cars and houses each owns. The choice is clear. Will we re-elect a Marxist or will we elect a Capitalist?

Recently, a video from 1998 surfaced. In those days, Barack Obama sat in the Illinois State Senate and he said, “I actually believe in redistribution...” Duh! This should come as no surprise to anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the past four years.

During the 2008 campaign, Obama told us exactly who he was and what he wanted to do to this country. His supporters would say he shared his vision with us. Netted out, he told us he was a redistributionist (Marxist) and that he intended to level the playing field for everyone. That is, he was going to take from those who had resources and give them to those he deemed needed them more. Hmm, sounds curiously like Marx: “From each according to his means, to each according to his needs.” And for the last three years and nine months, Obama has done his level best to keep those campaign promises.

However, the problem with systems like Socialism and Marxism is that they view the whole economy as having a finite amount of wealth. That some people have more wealth than others is patently unfair, therefore, the government must take from those they deem have too much and give to others who don’t have as much. In short, they see wealth as a pie that is only so big, and that pie must serve everyone equally--except of course for the ruling elite who make sure they get their perks.

Ta da! ... Enter Capitalism.

Capitalists like Mitt Romney see the pie, but they also see the potential to grow the pie. In other words, they want to provide opportunities for everyone to produce more goods and services through jobs, to produce more wealth for themselves and society and therefore make the pie bigger. That way, everyone can have larger pieces of the pie.

In the Romney video that debuted at about the same time, Romney spoke of the 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay federal income taxes, and that we have far too many people dependent on government. He didn’t say anything untrue. His figures and insight were correct. But the left is acting as though he just killed granny. Granted, he could have said it more elegantly, but in essence, he was right. No society creates wealth by expanding the number of people dependent on the public coffers. To create wealth, society must increase the number of producers who keep the fruits of their labor. Otherwise, they have no incentive to produce. In other words, lower taxes.

We must elect someone who understands business and the free enterprise system as opposed to someone who has never so much as run a candy store. We must elect someone who knows that we can grow the pie bigger and better than ever before and provide the leadership to do so as opposed to someone who thinks the pie is finite and that a central government must control it all. We must elect someone who respects private property rights as opposed to someone who thinks the government needs to own and operate everything.

Step up, America and meet John F. Kennedy’s inaugural challenge: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

Yes, Kennedy was a democrat, but he truly believed in America.

Joan R. Neubauer is an author, public speaker, and works as the Public Liaison Officer for the Davis Mountains Trans-Pecos Heritage Association in Alpine, Texas. Invite Joan to speak at your next event. You may contact her at dmtpha@sbcglobal.net or call her at 432/837-3461. You can also weigh in on various issues at dmtpha.wordpress.com.